Have just discovered this forum, during my random browsing. Am very glad i have.

Here is my situation;

Last year a colleague and i attended the ITIL foundation training and got certified. We are working at a university in the ICT centre. The University wants to improve the help desk and that is the reason we were sent for training.
The task we now have tomorrow actually is to do a presentation to make Section Managers in the ICT Centre understand why we are recommending that the ITIL Service Desk process (function) be the basis on which the help desk improvement should be done.
We were informed recently that a system (Help Desk) has been acquired which may be used in the University.

What do you think should be our focus in the presentation so the managers can understand?

I don't think that question can be answered. There are too many unknowns.

I would first want to know how they went about selecting the software for the helpdesk.

Remember ITIL is guidance. The way to develop a management system for the service desk (or anything else) is to sit down and work out what you want it to do and how you want to go about it. If you do this with your ITIL knowledge (and the books for more detail and breadth) informing the discussion and pay strong attention to service objectives and imperatives, you can come up with a viable system.

email me if you want more at short notice._________________"Method goes far to prevent trouble in business: for it makes the task easy, hinders confusion, saves abundance of time, and instructs those that have business depending, both what to do and what to hope."
William Penn 1644-1718

What i have actually discovered is that the Managers in our section were very misinformed about the training my colleague and i were going for when we went for the ITIL Foundation Course.

Of course like you have rightly said, ITIL is a guideline and that is where it all starts from. Am yet to know the criteria used when they selected the system mentioned to have been obtained.

I see a bit of lack of knowledge about ITIL and maybe that's where my colleague and i should begin, give a general but simplified overview of the ITIL processes, with a bit more emphasis on the Service Desk, hoping this will open everyone to what is involved. The later on an assessment as to where we are now with regards to how we are managing the services we offering to the University Community and where we want to be, then of course find tools that can help us.

What i have actually discovered is that the Managers in our section were very misinformed about the training my colleague and i were going for when we went for the ITIL Foundation Course.

Of course like you have rightly said, ITIL is a guideline and that is where it all starts from. Am yet to know the criteria used when they selected the system mentioned to have been obtained.

I see a bit of lack of knowledge about ITIL and maybe that's where my colleague and i should begin, give a general but simplified overview of the ITIL processes, with a bit more emphasis on the Service Desk, hoping this will open everyone to what is involved. The later on an assessment as to where we are now with regards to how we are managing the services we offering to the University Community and where we want to be, then of course find tools that can help us.

What do you all think?

A short presentation on the benefits of ITIL would be handy for you. Especially if you can pull in some statistics on current issues.

For example you could frame the current issues with the environment like how incidents are lost, no tracking, no knowledge how much work the IT team have, no visibility to other uni deptartments etc.

Then drop a couple of slides in on how the ITIL process builds a common language for service managment what the benefits that best practice will bring for standards and improved services.

Sounds like you might face some issues if they have already selected a service desk tool without first looking at the process! _________________Robin Fitton.